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Definition Of Burden And Standard Of Proof

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Burden and Standard of Proof

The expression of burden of proof is the obligation to prove. There are two principal kinds of burden, legal burden and the evidential burden. The legal burden

The legal burden is referred as the burden of proof. The legal burden may be defined as the obligation imposed on a party by a rule of law to prove a fact in issue. Generally the claimant will bear the legal burden of proving each element of his claim, in which he has to present his evidence first. Thus, the claimant can only discharge his legal burden of proof once the defendant has presented his case. However, the claimant will not know if they have been successful in discharging the legal burden until the judge has given the judgement at the very end of the case. Failure to discharge the burden of proof, the claimant will not have a case to put forward.

The evidential burden

As Lord Bingham has stated in Sheldrake , “an evidential burden is not a burden of proof. It is a burden of raising, on the evidence in the case, an issue as to the matter in question fit for consideration by the tribunal of fact”.
The evidential burden is referred as the burden of adducing evidence and the duty of passing the judge. In a criminal trial, the prosecution will bear the evidential burden.
The prosecution must adduce sufficient evidence for the judge to not withdraw the case. Thus, even if the prosecution has discharged the evidential evidence, it does not mean the accused will lose. The

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